A 66-year-old equestrian may be Japan’s oldest Olympic representative. Hiroshi Hoketsu, who turns 67 next month, last took part in an Olympics at the 1964 Tokyo Games where he finished 40th in the show jumping event.

The Japan Equestrian Federation’s Azusa Kitano, said, ‘It is more than likely Mr Hoketsu will take part in Beijing. He will be in the team dressage. He hasn’t been at an Olympics since 1964, which was 44 years ago, but he has continued riding all this time.’

For a totally amazing effort one needs to look at the Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn who won his sixth Olympic medal at the 1920 Antwerp Games at the age of 72 years and 280 days.

Hiroshi Hoketsu is based in Germany and switched from show jumping to the far less physically demanding dressage in his 30s.

Japanese Olympic chief Tsunekazu Takeda said, ‘He’s the most experienced man we’ve got. He’s up at 5 a.m. every day. He’s what horse riding is all about. I want to congratulate him with all my heart.’

Hoketsu even has a fair chance of participating in the individual competitions on his horse Whisper if he can maintain his top-100 international ranking.
Source: Reuters

The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games has announced on Wednesday that medals for the Olympics will be encrusted with the distinctive mineral jade from China’s province of Qinghai. This will be the first time that Olympic medals will be made with other materials other than metal.

The Olympic committee has shown a unique medal design in which the gold, silver and bronze medals will be laid with a distinctive band of jade.

The jade will come from a Kunlun Mountain area near Ge’ermu City, Qinghai. The province has an abundant reserve of jade and the manufacture will be very carefully supervised.

The gold medal will have lighter finer jade set in its back while the silver will have a white-greenish jade. The bronze will have a darker green jade.

Source: AHN News

The pictures show cheerleaders rehearsing at a gymnasium in Tianjin municipality January 4, 2008. The team will attend trials to compete for a chance at performing in the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

So where do cheerleaders come from? And why are we seeing comely Chinese ladies leaping around in splendid costumes?

Cheerleading is, of course, basically, of American origin. There is no suggestion that it happened at the Colissseum in Rome when the Christiams met the lions on a non-friendly basis.

It first appeared in the United States in the late 1880s with the crowd chanting in unison although this as a debut is strongly debated. Chanting at sporting events can be traced back to Europe in the 12th century.

Getting the crowds to cheer idiot phrases in unison was the American addition. In 1898 University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering something so pathetic we will ignore it. And they still use the same idiot phrase. It makes you wonder about American education.

Then the University of Minnesota organized a ‘yell leader’ squad of six male students.

So cheerleading started out as an all-male activity, but females began participating in 1923 partially due to the limited availability of female collegiate sports and partially due to the fact they were a damned site more attractive than the men. They added gymnastics, tumbling, and megaphones and soon it was a major movement.

97% of cheerleading is now female and in 1972 there came the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders who visited Hong Kong and the world was changed for ever. They were better disciplined and more precise in their movements than a battallion of guardsmen. And a damned site easier on the eyes.

Now most of the professional teams’ cheerleading squads would more accurately be described as dance teams by today’s standards; as they rarely, if ever, actively encourage crowd noise although the crowd does make a noise although not organized.

So the Chinese particpants will not be cheerleaders in the sense they will lead cheers. They will be pulchritudunuous performers to bring a bright sparkle to the scene. Hoorah!
Source: Jongo News

China’s 2004 Olympic judo champion Xian Dongmei, shown here, launched a strong comeback after giving birth to her first child in January, helping China to win its first world team title in Beijing. Her unexpected form makes her a strong candidate for the China’s Olympic team in the 2008 Games.

She said, ‘There are a lot of people coming to me and saying “God, you shouldn’t be there, you are a new mom”. I simply don’t want to miss the chance to compete at the Olympics at home because I don’t think I will have a second chance like this in my life. No matter how hard my new career will be, I have to take a try.’

A gold medalist in the 52kg division at the Athens Games in 2004, Xian began her comeback last week at the World Team Championships. It was her first international event since she retired after the Tenth National Games in 2005, deciding to devote her energies to motherhood rather than judo.

She led her team to successive victories over Algeria, Russia and Cuba to lift China’s first trophy of the tournament at Chaoyang Gymnasium in Beijing.
Source: China Daily

Michael Johnson the American who was the first athlete to win 200m and 400m gold medals in the same Olympics — achieved first at Atlanta and again four years later in Sydney in 2000 — said one of the current major topics in sport was who was going to finish top of the Olympics medals table in Beijing next year.

Michael Johnson said, ‘The US has finished at the top for the last few Olympics, but now there is talk that China can surpass the US and end its dominance. However, I don’t think that is going to happen.

‘And everyone wants to know how Britain is going to finish. . . well it is not going to be pretty. This is because there has been a huge lapse since the days of Coe, Ovett and Cram and then the next generation of Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell, John Regis and Colin Jackson.

‘I think Beijing is going to be difficult for the British.’
Source: ICWales